ABSTRACT
Diversity research often relies on experiments to make causal claims about the effects of various attributes, such as gender or race/ethnicity, on organizationally relevant outcomes. With this method, scholars intervene, then analyze the effect of the intervention on one or more outcomes. However, there remains a lack of clear, practical guidance on how to best study the effects of attributes via experiments, including some of the theoretical and ethical implications that these design and method decisions might entail. Thus, we review the literature on experimental diversity research in organizations, highlighting illustrative publications and their design choices. Throughout, we note some strengths and potential pitfalls of these approaches. In line with the approach of this methods anthology, we also describe a recent set of experimental studies on intersecting aspects of diversity by the first author of this chapter to practically exemplify some of the themes discussed within this chapter. We conclude with a discussion of ethical implications.
